As pressure built for swift US government action on the September 11 commission's recommendations to avert another terror attack, President George W. Bush said on Saturday he wanted to "carefully examine" the ideas before deciding how to proceed.
Lawmakers rushed to respond to the panel's findings, announcing rare August recess hearings, as September 11 commission Chairman Thomas Kean warned that security experts expect an al Qaeda attack on American soil and that "time is not on our side."
Kean said on Friday security experts believe militants will try to use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, and added that if Congress and the president delayed making changes they would be held responsible by the American people.
The commission recommended sweeping changes to US intelligence operations and how the government fights terrorism when it issued its final report on Thursday on the September 11, 2001, attacks.
In his weekly radio address, Bush acknowledged that the country still faces grave threats, although he said changes he had already undertaken to reorganise the government - including creating a Homeland Security department - had helped make the country safer.
Yet, he said, "no matter how good our defences are, a determined enemy can still strike us."
Bush did not specifically discuss the September 11 commission's central recommendations of a new government position to oversee all intelligence agencies and the creation of a counterterrorism centre.
But he said, "We will carefully examine all the commission's ideas on how we can improve our ongoing efforts to protect America and to prevent another attack."
The commission's recommendations "will help guide our efforts as we work to protect the homeland," he added.
The president, who is spending this week at his Texas ranch, has instructed White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to co-ordinate the study of the commission's recommendations, but he has been given no specific deadline.
The 10-member commission's report found "deep institutional failings" and missed opportunities to thwart the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001.
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